Conditioning of peri-implant soft tissue

The relevance of the problem and the purpose of the work. Prosthetics on dental implants is popular procedure nowadays, but one of the biggest challenges is to meet the patient's aesthetic expectations. The contour of peri-implant soft tissues is crucial for the final result. Proper formation of contour is often complicated, especially when implantation is delayed. Thus, the aim of the work is to evaluate the knowledge and choices of general practice dentists and dental specialists in the formation of soft tissue contours and to make recommendations. Material and methods. Anonymous survey (25 closed-ended questions with answer options and 2 open-ended questions) was used. Respondents - general practitioners dentists and dental specialists, who perform dental implant surgery and / or prosthetics on dental implants. 150 respondents were surveyed. The statistical analysis of the data was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics program. Results. Before making the permanent restoration, gingival conditioning perform 91% of doctors, who perform prosthetics on dental implants. 52% of respondents perform gingival conditioning from 2 weeks to 1 month, 31% - 1-2 months, 10% - 2-3 months. The most popular choice for soft tissue contouring in the area of the anterior teeth – provisional restorations on dental implants (84%), in the area of posterior teeth – healing abutments (75%). During the gingival conditioning process, 24% of doctors change the size of standard metal healing abutments, 30% - the shape of individual forming healing abutments and 49% change the form of temporary restorations. Complications due to incorrect gum formation are observed by 67% of doctors performing implantation. Conclusions. According to the study, gingival conditioning before making a permanent restoration is popular medical procedure. In the area of the anterior teeth soft tissue contours are usually formed with provisional restorations, in the area of posterior teeth - with healing abutments. However, doctors’ knowledge about methodologies of gum conditioning do not match the scientific literature